


I hear you

by QueenPotatos



Category: Free!
Genre: Fairy Tales, M/M, Paper Plane, Rinharu Week, day 2 : long distance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-26
Updated: 2019-12-26
Packaged: 2021-02-26 03:04:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,778
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21976297
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/QueenPotatos/pseuds/QueenPotatos
Summary: Rin was stuck alone in a tower by Fate.As an act of kindness, Fate brought him a neighbour.RinHaru Week, Day 2 : Long distance
Relationships: Matsuoka Rin/Nanase Haruka
Comments: 6
Kudos: 17





	I hear you

**Author's Note:**

> This is a collaboration I made with Sapphie.  
> I am really grateful you accepted to work with me ! I loved our brainstorming, and your idea was refreshing. I've been in the fandom since 2013 and I think I've never read something like that.  
> This is for you, I'm a bit stressed but I hope I won't disappoint you.

* * *

#### I hear you -

.

Once upon a time there was a young mage living alone in a tower at the end of the world.

He had been named Rin by his father, a mage as well and after his tragic death, the young man had no choice but to take his place in this prison of loneliness. The tower was as high as fifty men and its presence was the only thing preventing their world from collapsing to the dark forces of evil. There had always been a mage inside to make the charm work, and unfortunately for Rin his Fate brought him in this most difficult place, to achieve the most difficult task: a life of solitude for the greatest good.

At first the worst was to get use to the tower arrangement and the endless stairs Rin had to climb to get through them. Then, once he got it figured out after a couple of days came the realisation that he would, for the rest of his life, live with absolutely no one to talk to. Being imprisoned far from his loved ones ate all the joy he had stored in his heart – the sacrifice was to protect them, he thought all day long, and this was the only thing that made his fate bearable.

His only opening to the world was the window at the top. From there, Rin could see the forest he had crossed to reach the tower, the lake he had swum in, the path he had walked on and where his mother held him one last time. He spent most of his time here, watching the nature before his eyes and listening to the animals, cursing to whoever could hear him that he should have learned how to talk to animals.

And then of course there was the other tower, the little sister, the second piece of the charm. It was a couple of hundred metres away and yet, due to the magic surrounding the place it seemed unreachable, like pretty much everything Rin could set his eyes on. What stole his attention the most was perhaps what laid behind : a hole, simply a hole, from where the evil forces would come out if the towers were to be left without any mystical power for too long. It helped him in his resolve, and he decided shortly upon his arrival that he would climb the stair and stare at the hole every day to absorb the courage he needed to complete his duty.

It took Rin a couple of days idling at the window to realize the other tower was also provided with some. The task found itself to be impossible since the same stones were covering the outside and inside walls but with a little help Rin saw the difference at last. Someone passed in front of the window while Rin was watching. It was a human adult, wearing a blue tunic but he couldn’t see anything more from his spot. And in a way it made sense, there had to be another mage in the other tower to make the charm work.

Rin wondered how long they had been there.

He came up every day to catch the other pass through the window out of curiosity, and in hope they would see him. Just the fact that he wasn’t alone in this solitude made the days brighter.

“Hey!” Rin shouted each time he saw the other mage – he was pretty sure he was a man just like him, even if he couldn’t see his face - but his voice got lost, shallowed in the distance separating them.

One day though, the other saw him.

He stopped in awe in front of his window as Rin waved at him – and had been for a couple of minutes, long enough to make his arms ache. Rin shouted again, and saw the other doing the same but no sound reached his ears. They were too far from each other to have any sort of conversation it seemed.

But somehow, even if this small failure left a bitter taste in his mouth, it gave Rin hope, and a reason to wake up every morning.

They fell in a sort of ritual; every morning at dawn, they would greet each other with a wave of the hand, same at lunch and before the sun set. Rin would be delighted to do more, to talk more, but alas their possibilities were more than limited.

He had an idea as he was writing a letter to his mother and sister. It sounded crazy, but what did he have to lose except a little credibility?

Rin wrote just a couple of words not to embarrass himself much if his plan actually worked and fold the paper in a plane. The following day, he waited for the other mage to wake up and took a deep breath.

The paper plane floated a couple of metre away; he was about to fall on the ground when, magically, it went up again and landed elegantly on the other tower.

The miracle had occurred.

Rin couldn’t hold his voice and let out his joy – along with a celebration dance that was mostly ridiculous – then stared as well as he could at the other mage opening the letter. His eyes were nothing but dots and he couldn’t distinguish their colour, but Rin hoped they were shining with awe just as his were.

The words he had written were pretty basic – ‘Hello. I am Rin. I am a mage like you (?). Nice to meet you’– but they would be other opportunities to tell more.

The next day Rin tried to renew his exploit, with another success and from then, the planes never stopped flying. He shared everything he could think of, what he liked to eat, to do, talked about his family, his father – ‘have you known him?’ he wrote – about his hobbies before he came here, how he found life here boring, or at least until he had found him.

On a day he felt particularly optimistic and happy about their sort of friendship – he risked the word - he wrote the following note.

‘I’ll hear your voice first, just you wait!’

Rin had always been competitive; it was a radiant part of his personality and had grandly helped him in becoming the mage and man he was today. He always thought a bit of challenge could bring out the best out of anyone, and made them work harder, starting from him. Every day he wrote a message and sent him to the other tower and each day, the mage on the other side would catch it and read it religiously.

He never sent one back though.

Rin thought that perhaps, he didn’t know how to fold a piece of paper into a plane, or perhaps had tried while Rin was away and missed all his throws. He then went on about the different techniques he knew and how to perfectly throw a plane with precise details, which took him three wholes pages and half of his day time, but at the end of the day Rin fell asleep contented.

Still, no plane were thrown at him, and it started to get on his nerves.

He didn’t want blame the other mage but after all the effort he put into this, a single reply – or at least an attempt! – would be the least he could do. Was he being annoying? Was the other mage a kind of weirdo happy to live alone?

Meeting deadly silence for the rest of his life was too much to bare. One night, Rin cried, out of rage, and resigned; he wouldn’t climb the stairs the following day, would stay in his room, sulking, minding his own business and cry over the friend he thought he had found, but never really did in the end.

Eventually, he figured out he was too old to act this childish. The morning of the third day, Rin visited the top of the tower again, only to find the other mage sleeping his head on the window’s sill, having no idea of how long he had stayed in that position and possibly – but the thought only linger for a second – waiting for him.

Rin never missed one of their meeting again.

The other mage waved at him first from then, Rin could see his vain effort to shout words at him, and even if unsuccessful they had the merit of warming something in Rin’s chest, something that had felt dead since he had learn his terrible and solitary fate.

It became the other way around a couple of weeks later. Rin woke up to an empty window, and didn’t see the other mage for a days. Fearing the worst, he as well spent more time than usual scrutinizing the tower for any clue of what had happened to his long distance friend.

His worries vanished on a bright afternoon. Rin shouted at the sight of the mage, holding in his hand a paper plane.

A really big one.

Rin watched, stunned, as the plane flew into the air dragging along series of bed sheets knot together, never dropping to the ground and straight to his window. Rin caught the plane and the first sheet, excited as a child for his birthday he opened the note.

‘Hold it.’ It just said.

Rin barely had time to raise his head to see the mage climbing out of the window with a piece of tissue in his hand, ready to slide on the long chain of sheet he had sent Rin.

And then, he threw himself into the void – well, not quite, but Rin would always remember as he looked like flying before he landed, unceremoniously, through his window directly on _him_.

They both gasped when they hit the floor. “Sorry Rin, that was a bit improvised.”

Rin burst out of laughing.

“…What did I say?” the other said, but without any worry – if he had to guess, Rin would bet on simple curiosity but nothing more than that.

“Told you I’ll hear your voice first.” He replied, triumphally. He couldn’t smile more, a sight his friend sent back.

“I’m Haru, by the way. Nice to finally meet you.”

Rin tided the sheet to his tower, and thanks to Haru’s wind magic they were able to see each other as much as they liked. From that day, there was no more paper plane, but only words and heated conversation between men brought in the end of the world by fate and forever linked by choice, happily ever after.

#### I hear you - The End

[Art made my Sapphie](https://twitter.com/Lunitaaxx/status/1210294235729186816?s=20)

**Author's Note:**

> (Happily ever after is the key word. This is rare enough in my works to be noted. #teamangst nee Sapphie :p
> 
> ( [Twitter ](https://twitter.com/doctor_queenie) )


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